Sat 2 Apr 2016
Tribute South West 1 West
Weston-super-Mare 33 Chard 19
Report from Cahrd RFC website by Glyn Hughes
Chard were forced to make at least six changes from the side that started last week against Teignmouth due to injuries, holidays and work commitments and one of these gave front row forward Benn Mainwaring his first start after a few appearances as a replacement. Also back in the team was Nick Hyslop making his first appearance of the season.
The changes meant that Chard took some time to settle particularly in the set pieces and they were under a lot of pressure from the start from a Weston Team who were still hoping to possibly get into the play off position.
Chard were under the cosh in the opening quarter but they kept in the game with some really good defensive play despite also having to content with playing against a strong wind. .
However Chard buckled after 15minutes when Weston crossed for their first converted try. This was followed by Aaron Hunt being yellow carded for an illegal tackle and from the resultant penalty Weston went over for try number two which again was converted.
Chard then went through a spell of playing some really good rugby but went further behind when they were caught cold with two breakaway tries after having put the home side on the defensive themselves. Both these tries were converted and Chard were now 28pts down which did not reflect the pattern of play at all.
In the early minutes of the second half some powerful running from the home centres ended with try number four which this time was not converted.
At this point a really big defeat looked on the cards but with Chard Northcott orchestrating things at fly half Chard got right back in to the game.
Initially Matt Tinley finished off a good move to get Chard on the score sheet with an unconverted try and then a few minutes later Weston were split apart defensively when Joe Massey crossed for try number two. Northcott converted this try and with ten minutes to go another fine bout of handling resulted in Northcott bursting through and scoring under the posts . He converted his own try and from 33 pts down Chard were now back to 33-19.
Chard worked tirelessly in the last few minutes to try and get a fourth converted try which would have given them a losing point and a try bonus point but it was not to be and Weston kept their slim hopes of a play off alive.
Unfortunately as well as losing the game Chard discovered that all the other teams at the bottom of the league other than Wells …who were thrashed at Thornbury…had won which meant that Chard ended the day only one position above the drop zone with three matches to play.
Weston-super-Mare scorers - tries: Glenn Dickson, Ross Bennett (2), Rich Bignell, Dan Lomax; cons: Glenn Dickson (4); yellow cards: Kirk Middlemiss (55 min), Paul Morrissey (65 min)
